Catalonia has been free of endemic terrestrial rabies for some time, but in recent years there has been growing concern about the airborne transmission of this disease. To the point that the Department of Health has issued a call to the population to avoid contact with bats. It does so as a preventive measure because attacks by these animals—which are currently the main carriers of this disease—are on the rise.

New step in the fight against cancer. An international team of researchers led by the Brain Metastasis Group of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) of Spain has discovered a previously unknown phase of metastasis development that could be key to fighting brain cancer even before the first symptoms appear. According to the research, published in the journal Cancer Cell, before reaching the brain, these cells go through a stage in which they are especially vulnerable and could be effectively eliminated if attacked with the appropriate drugs.

"Until recently, Catalonia had 27 methods for collecting medical data". With this figure, the president of the Biological Sciences Section of the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC), Jaume Reventós, has attempted to show one of the risks we face when using artificial intelligence (AI) in current and future medicine. He did so in a debate organized by the IEC itself and ARA, in which the president of the Science and Technology Section of the IEC, Alícia Casals, also participated, and which was moderated by the head of the Society section of ARA, Gemma Garrido Granger.

Health problems derived from intensive screen exposure are no longer a future threat for the youngest: they are a reality. The consequences vary according to the life stage, but the combination of risks over the years can favor the appearance of pathologies, some irreversible, among children and adolescents. From 0 to 6 years old, the inadequate use of technologies can cause them to start speaking later, develop myopia, or have motor difficulties. Between 7 and 11 years old, it can worsen sleep, favor overweight and the appearance of cavities, and affect academic performance. And from 12 to 18 years old, it can increase emotional distress, distort self-image, and increase vulnerability to patterns of violence and harassment, inside and outside of social networks.

In our daily life there are elements that, without knowing it, may be making us slowly ill. Some we are getting to know better, such as the microplastics that sneak into the food we have on our table, but others are more invisible and we find it difficult to identify them.

A new scandal in the Madrid healthcare system, stifled by years of cuts and privatizations, has once again exposed the shortcomings of the public system in the State capital. Managers of one of the city's major hospitals, the Ramón y Cajal, ordered last year to downgrade the severity of some sixty patients awaiting surgery to improve the status of waiting lists, according to internal documents to which El País has had access . According to the information, two heads of the center made changes to the priority of the operations without assessing the affected patients or consulting the surgeons who had determined the severity of the cases.

“We have run out of the estradiol we need so much to function daily and nothing is being done,” lamented Pino Bethencourt recently on LinkedIn. This coach explained, with fear and also rage, some of the effects she could suffer if she did not obtain the hormonal treatment she had been prescribed to treat the numerous and debilitating symptoms she was suffering linked to menopause.

If there is a secret to aging well, it seems likely that Valentí Fuster knows something about it. At 83 years old, this global reference in cardiology is participating in one of the Generation+ meetings organized by Caixabank to talk about the challenges of longevity in the economy and health. He does so with a lucidity unusual for someone who was on a plane traveling from the United States just three hours ago. The audience, of course, wants to know the recipe of a man capable of still balancing the role of director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York with the direction of the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid.

The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) will review its latest report on diet and healthy habits during menopause after several scientists denounced that it offered recommendations based on studies conducted exclusively on men. The agency has acknowledged that the document, published last April, did not warn of this limitation and has commissioned its scientific committee to review the text. The case, reported by Eldiario.es, once again brings to the fore a persistent problem in biomedical research: the lack of specific evidence on women's health and the historical tendency to take the male body as a reference and extrapolate the results to the general population, even on specific issues such as menopause.

Swimming in the sea is one of the blessings of summer. The act of slowing down, being outdoors, and cooling off is an anti-stress balm that alleviates the headaches accumulated throughout the year. Although the sea offers us multiple virtues, not all those attributed to it can be taken for granted. Regarding seawater specifically, messages are spread, especially through social networks, such as that drinking it "remineralizes," "balances electrolytes," "alkalizes the body," or even "hydrates better," but the fact is that scientific evidence does not support claims like these and, on the other hand, the risks of drinking it are well identified.The idea that drinking seawater is beneficial spread over a century ago with the French biologist René Quinton, who maintained that seawater resembles blood plasma because life originated in the sea and that it contains the chemical elements the body needs. Based on this hypothesis, Quinton developed the so-called "marine therapy." In recent times, with the popularization of social networks, the attribution of benefits to the intake of seawater – even untreated – has spread even further, but one must carefully consider who is saying it and what exactly they are saying to avoid falling into pseudoscientific practices.

In my previous article there were ideas left in the drawer because there wasn't enough space to address them. My intention was to propose practical solutions because having plans is essential for moving forward. Let's continue.The annual increase in the cost of public healthcare is 5-6%, while the Generalitat's overall spending grows by 3%. The population is aging and requires more attention. Healthcare professionals have increased their professional level. New technologies derived from bio sciences –more specific– are more effective, but also more expensive. The efficiency of the Catalan health system is due, in part, to the low salaries of medical staff, who, however, treat patients with a professionalism and care not found in any other member state of the European Union.Universal public healthcare is an asset that generates well-being and social cohesion, and that preserves the essence of the service that its creators wanted and achieved. The first universal health system was created in Prussia in 1880 by Bismarck, a visionary conservative who feared the decomposition of the Reich by socialism and the proletarian masses, at that time strong and organized due to the industrial revolution. To avoid this, Bismarck adopted, for health, socialist principles. The system was based on funding from contributions paid by employers and workers as part of their wages.In 1941, Churchill asked William Beveridge to plan a universal health system for after the war, to be financed through taxes. When Labour won the elections in 1945, Prime Minister Clement Attlee implemented the system that Churchill had imagined. It was a success, a pioneer in Europe. The Spanish system is based on this structure.Catalan healthcare was an invention of Convergència. The party intended to strengthen and consolidate a society that had emerged from the dictatorship with “scars”, but also with the will to create a society for the new political environment where it was “Catalan whoever lives and works in Catalonia”. Health became an autonomous competence. Trias planned it, Ribó's left supported it and the government's work was completed... Today we have the result.Time passes, and the precious asset we have today —few will argue that the Catalan health system is not excellent— requires increasing funds to maintain the current quality level. It also needs a reform of the system to make it more efficient and reduce spending without affecting services. The problem with our health system is its cost, and reforms must be aimed at containing it. The system has an attribute that makes it unique: the combination of the staff's professionalism with a public-private mix – private entities, such as La Caixa, and public ones, such as universities, hospitals, and research centers, which maintain quality and innovation as their hallmarks –. Everyone wants to be treated by the public health system in case of serious illness.

It's barely been three months since she arrived in Barcelona and Mónica Bettencourt-Dias (Lisbon, 1972) is already fumbling with Catalan. She has a private tutor and has enrolled her daughters in a summer camp to immerse them in the language. All this shows the intentions of this cellular biologist, who confesses herself to be in love with the city and its culture, and who has just taken over as director of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona. She is the first woman to head this flagship of biomedical research in Europe, and will lead nearly 500 scientists from 47 different nationalities.

In the summer, when coastal waters warm up, the presence of a bacterium that can cause serious infections in humans increases. It is Vibrio vulnificus, a microorganism that naturally lives in marine and brackish waters in different parts of the world. The U.S. state of Louisiana has reported nine cases of infection this 2026, five of which have resulted in the death of those affected. All cases have required hospitalization, and authorities have linked them to the exposure of wounds to seawater. During the previous ten years, the state had reported an average of about seven cases and one death annually.

Putting on a swimsuit to go to the beach, taking a trip to the mountains… The summer plans we look forward to all year round are not equally easy for everyone. “These weeks the world stops in a kind of truce where most people disconnect, but we can't,” says Elisenda Martínez from Barcelona. It’s not easy to go to the beach after a mastectomy, to see your scars or to take photos without hair; it’s not easy to accept that the getaway you have planned will leave you “worn out” or that you’ll have to schedule your holidays around medical appointments and various treatments. “In the summer, cancer doesn’t go away,” laments Martínez, who, even though it’s harder now, doesn’t stop going to the festivals she used to attend before her diagnosis or enjoying the summer with friends and family.

During the summer, thousands of people go out to enjoy nature, from walks in forests or along a river to excursions in some of the country's natural parks. And yet, although many, being prepared, might put a small first-aid kit with mosquito repellent, disinfectant, or gauze in our backpack to deal with small unforeseen events, few think about the much less obvious risk that lies behind such a common and seemingly harmless gesture as picking a bunch of wildflowers or tasting some berries, which in some cases can end up in the emergency room.

Xavier Pàmies, a 66-year-old translator, suffered a retinal detachment in 2007 while on holiday in Northern Europe. "These things always happen in the summer," he explains with a laugh. But the incident was serious and required emergency intervention at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital. After two retinal operations, two cataract operations, and a late diagnosis of glaucoma, this patient is now stabilized and maintains "reasonably good vision between both eyes." He is one of the more than 200 patients who have passed through the new Myopia Unit at Vall d'Hebron, integrated into the Ophthalmology Service and located at the Pere Virgili Health Park; a service that aims to respond to a condition estimated to affect half the population by 2050.

The race for gene therapy and the desperation of some parents have ended up costing the life of a six-year-old girl in China. The minor, named Mei – a pseudonym to protect the family's privacy – died at Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai in March 2025 due to thrombotic microangiopathy – that is, the formation of deadly microscopic clots – seven days after receiving an injection of a virus at the base of her spine. The parents had opted for this therapy after learning that their daughter had an alteration in the CHD3 gene, which caused her a syndrome compatible with autism and a consequent delay in physical and cognitive development.

The first transplant between two people with HIV in Spain ends a prohibition that had been in place for almost forty years. Since 1987, people with the virus could receive organs from HIV-negative donors, but they could not become donors, not even for other people with the same infection. This limitation was repealed in 2025 thanks to a new protocol promoted by the National Transplant Organization (ONT), which authorizes these interventions as long as both the donor and recipient meet very strict clinical criteria, such as maintaining an undetectable viral load and not having suffered from certain opportunistic infections.

The Spanish government's decision to expand smoke-free spaces to terraces, beaches, university campuses, and other public areas is excellent news. It's late, but it's here. It is a necessary reform, supported by scientific evidence and consistent with what the WHO and the scientific community have been recommending for years.

Key step by the Spanish government to toughen the crackdown on tobacco. This Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the new anti-tobacco law, which includes new smoke-free spaces, such as bar and restaurant terraces, and also new ways of smoking, such as electronic cigarettes and vapes. Minors will be prohibited from smoking, as until now only sales to this group were prohibited, and it foresees sanctions starting from 200 euros. Now the text will be sent to the Congress of Deputies, where the different parliamentary groups will debate whether or not it is finally approved and in what way.